Confusion – Batter and runners on first and
second, Lew Brown and Tom York were forced to run and were all putout.

Decision – Umpire ruled that Snyder did not hold
ball long enough for Hague to be the only out at the plate.

1880 0520 CHICAGO NL vs CLEVELAND NL

Trickery – Silver Flint, catcher for Chicago,
intentionally

dropped third strike
on Jack Glasscock, the Cleveland batter.

Confusion – Batter and runners on first, second
and third, Frank Hankinson, Bill Phillips and Ned Hanlon were forced to run and
Hanlon, Hankinson and Glasscock were quickly putout.

Decision – Umpire was moot and allowed play to
stand.

1882 0505 TROY NL at BOSTON NL

Trickery – Buck Ewing, catcher for Troy,
intentionally

dropped third strike
on Sam Wise, the Boston batter.

Confusion – Batter and runners on first and
second, Ezra Sutton and Pete Hotaling were forced to run and all were putout.

Decision – Umpire allowed play to stand.

1882 0530 BUFFALO NL at BOSTON NL

Trickery – Deacon White, catcher for Buffalo,
intentionally

dropped third strike
on John Morrill, the Boston batter.

Confusion – Batter and runners on first, second
and third, Ezra Sutton, Pete Hotaling and Sam Wise were forced to run and
Hotaling, Sutton and Morrill were putout.

Decision – Morrill refused to run to first. In
the meantime, Wise crossed home plate but umpire refused to count the run and
upheld the three men being putout.

1882 0606 CINCINNATI AA vs BALTIMORE AA

Trickery – Pop Snyder, catcher for Cincinnati,
intentionally

dropped third strike on Harry Jacoby, the Baltimore batter.

Confusion – Batter and runners on first, second
and third, Charlie Householder, Ed Whiting and Henry Myers were forced to run
and Myers, Whiting and Householder were putout.

Decision – Umpire was moot and allowed play to
stand.

1882 0622 CINCINNATI AA vs PITTSBURGH AA

Trickery – Chuck Fulmer, shortstop for
Cincinnati, intentionally let

pop fly drop that was hit by Johnny Peters, batter
for Pittsburgh.

Confusion – Runners on first and second, Mike
Mansell and Ed Swartwood, certain that Fulmer would catch the ball, held their
bases. When ball dropped to the ground, Fulmer scooped it up and threw to Bid
McPhee who putout Mansell on a forceout and tagged Swartwood. Later, due to the
fact that Peters, the batter, was disgusted with his pop fly, and did not run to
first, a throw there put him out also.

Decision – Pittsburgh argued that Fulmer, in
fact, did catch the ball, but the umpire did not agree.

1882 0726 ST. LOUIS AA at BALTIMORE AA

Trickery – Sleeper Sullivan, catcher for
St. Louis, intentionally

dropped third strike to Monk Cline, batter for
Baltimore.

Confusion – Batter and , runners on first, second
and third, Tom Brown, Charlie Householder and Ed Whiting were forced to run and
Whiting, Householder and Brown were all putout.

Decision – Umpire let the play stand.

1882 0913 CINCINNATI AA vs LOUISVILLE AA

Trickery – Pop Snyder, catcher for Cincinnati,

dropped the third strike to Dan Sullivan, batter for Louisville.

Confusion – Batter and runners on first and
second, Chicken Wolf and Guy Hecker, were forced to run, and all were putout.

Decision – Umpire let the play stand.

1884 0728 PHILADELPHIA AA vs BROOKLYN AA

Trickery – Jack O’Brien, catcher for
Philadelphia,

dropped (or so he thought) the third strike to Bill Greenwood,
batter for Brooklyn.

Confusion – Batter and runners on first, second
and third, Billy Geer, Jack Remsen and Jimmy Knowles thought they had to go for
the next base and did so. O’Brien threw to first, thinking he was retiring the
batter Bill Greenwood, and Harry Stovey, the first baseman, threw back to
O’Brien when he noticed Knowles coming home. O’Brien tagged Knowles out, then
Stricker, Houck, and Corey of Philadelphia eventually ran down runner Remsen.

Decision – In actuality, the umpire decided that
O’Brien had held the ball sufficiently long on the third strike to declare the
batter out at the plate and that O’Brien’s throw to first was meaningless. If
the runners had held their bases only Greenwood, the batter, would have been
out, but when the runners came off their bases they were doing so at their own
peril and a triple play was completed.

1885 0513 BROOKLYN AA at PITTSBIRGH AA

Trickery – Jackie Hayes, catcher for Brooklyn,

dropped the third strike to Hank O’Day, batter for Pittsburgh.

Confusion – O’Day, the batter refused to run to
first and force the runners on first, second and third, Pop Smith, Jim Field and
Charlie Eden to run. O’Day thought he had merely struck out.

Decision – After Jackie Hayes, the catcher
touched home plate, then threw to third and Bill McClellan, the third baseman,
relayed the ball to first, the umpire ruled all hands were out, despite
objections of the Pittsburgh club.

1885 0623 PHILADELPHIA AA at BALTIMORE AA

Trickery – Harry Stovey, the Philadelphia first
baseman, apparently

trapped a line drive off the bat of Jimmy Macullar of
Baltimore.

Confusion – Runners on second and third, Tim
Manning and Hardie Henderson were off and running.

Decision – Stovey’s throw to Cub Stricker, at
second, and Stricker’s throw to Fred Corey, at third, putout the runners and
the batter when the umpire ruled that Stovey had legitimately caught Macullar’s
line drive.

1885 0709 ST. LOUIS AA vs BROOKLYN AA

Trickery – Doc Bushong, the St. Louis catcher,

dropped the third strike to Bill Phillips, the Brooklyn batter.

Confusion – When Phillips ran to first, the
runners on first and second, Bill McClellan and Ed Swartwood were forced to run
and they and the batter, Bill Phillips, were declared out on the subsequent
defensive plays.

Confusion – Runners on first, second and third,
Fatty Briody, Jim Donnelly and Jim Whitney were forced off their bases and all
three were putout.

Decision – The umpire let the play stand.

1889 0624 CHICAGO NL vs NEW YORK NL

Trickery – Charlie Bastian, Chicago shortstop,

dropped a fly ball off the bat of Gil Hatfield.

Confusion – Runners on first and second, Jim
O’Rourke and Danny Richardson were forced off their bases and Hatfield ran to
first. All three men were putout.

Decision – Umpire let the play stand.

1890 0430 ROCHESTER AA vs BROOKLYN AA

Trickery – Marr Phillips, the Rochester
shortstop, let a

popup off the bat of John Peltz,
drop untouched.

Confusion – Runners on first, second and third,
Frank Fennelly, Steve Toole and Herman Pitz were unsure whether to hold their
bases or run but did leave their bases and were all putout.

Decision – After hearing the protests of the
Brooklyn club that only the batter should have been declared out (per league
instructions to the umpires), Umpire Barnum declared the side out saying that he
never heard of any instructions (likely a forerunner to an infield fly rule).

1890 0715 CHICAGO PL at PHILADELPHIA PL

Trickery – Fred Pfeffer, the Chicago second
baseman, let a

pop fly
over the pitcher’s head drop untouched.
Batter was John Pickett.

Confusion – Runners on first , second and third,
Billy Shindle, Mike Griffin and Ben Sanders were putout by subsequent throws by
the Chicago infielders and catcher.

Decision – Umpire let the play stand as played
out.

1893 0524 PITTSBURG NL vs ST. LOUIS NL

Trickery – Connie Mack, the Pittsburgh catcher,

trapped (intentionally ?) a pop up between home plate and first base. The
batter was Sandy Griffin.

Confusion – Even though batter Griffin was
declared out under the infield fly rule, the runner at third, Steve Brodie,
seeing that Mack had not caught the ball tried to score and he was putout.
During the Brodie scoring attempt, the runner at second, Heinie Peitz, tried for
third and was also put out.

Decision – The umpire let the play stand.

1893 0526 BROOKLYN NL at BALTIMORE NL

Trickery – Danny Richardson, the Brooklyn second
baseman, let a

pop fly
near the mound drop to
the ground. The batter was John McGraw.

Confusion – The bases were loaded with runners
with George Treadway at first, Willard Brown at second and Tim O’Rourke at
third. The defense promptly forced out all the runners.

Decision – The umpire let the play stand.
Umpires of the era apparently applied the “infield fly rule” unevenly (see game
of 1896 0524 Pittsburgh NL vs St. Louis NL just 2 days before).

1893 0722 CINCINNATI NL at ST. LOUIS NL

Trickery – Bid McPhee, the Cincinnati second
baseman, purposely let a

pop fly drop to the ground untouched. The batter was
Jimmy Bannon.

Confusion – The runners, Steve Brodie at first
and Tommy Dowd at second, did not run thinking the ball would be caught. Both
runners were putout and the batter, Jimmy Bannon, was putout when he did not run
to first.

Decision – The umpire let the play stand.

1894 0815 BOSTON NL vs PITTSBURGH NL

Trickery – Tommy McCarthy, center fielder for
Boston, ran in and made a

bluff to catch a fly ball
off the bat of Bill
Merritt. Then he let the ball drop untouched.

Confusion – The runner on second, Joe Sugden,
held his base even though he was forced to run and was tagged out by Bobby Lowe,
the second baseman. The runner on first, Fred Hartman, was putout on the force
play when Lowe stepped on second. Merritt, the batter, did not run to first,
and was tagged out.

Decision – Umpire let the play stand.

1895 0502 CHICAGO NL vs LOUISVILLE NL

Trickery – There was no trickery by the defense
when Bill Dahlen, the shortstop for Chicago, caught a fly ball over the infield
off the bat of Fred Clarke.

Confusion – The runners, Ambrose McGann on first
and Bert Cunningham on second, were

confused by the new rules and were standing
on the basepaths. They were promptly putout.

Decision – The umpire let the play stand.

1895 0613 NEW YORK NL vs ST. LOUIS NL

Trickery – There was no trickery when Amos Rusie,
the New York pitcher, just could not reach a bunt fly near first base off the
bat of Duff Cooley.

Confusion – Even though Cooley was called out by
the new “

infield fly “ rule, the runners, Tom Brown, at first, and Ted Breitenstein, at second, started to run when they saw Rusie could not reach
Cooley’s bunt fly. They both were putout.

Decision – Umpire let the play stand.

1897 0515 NEW YORK NL at CINCINNATI NL

Trickery – There was no trickery when Cy Seymour,
the New York pitcher, caught a popup off the bat of Charlie Irwin.

Confusion – The runner on second, Dusty Miller,
left the bag and was putout on Seymour’s throw to George Davis, the shortstop.
Davis then threw to first baseman Jake Beckley and when the runner on first,
Farmer Vaughn, jarred the ball loose, he was declared out for

interference.

Decision – The umpire was prominent on the
interference call on Farmer Vaughn.

1897 0529-2 BROOKLYN NL at PITTSBURGH NL

Trickery – It is not certain whether the

trapped
fly ball by Mike Griffin, the Brooklyn center fielder, off the bat of Dick Padden was intentional or not.

Confusion – The runner on second, Steve Brodie,
was tagged out by Griffin who was running in with the ball in hand. The runner
on first, Patsy Donovan, was forced out at second. Meanwhile, batter Padden
tried to stretch his fly hit into a double and was putout.

Decision – Umpire let the play stand.

1898 0720 NEW YORK NL vs PITTSBURGH NL

Trickery – There may have been no trickery when
Mike Grady, the New York catcher, handled a popup near the plate off the bat of
Jesse Tannehill.

Confusion – Runners Tom McCreery, on first, and
Patsy Donovan, on second, started running when they thought Grady “

trapped” the
ball. The defense put out both runners.

Decision – Despite a strong protest by
Pittsburgh, the umpire ruled that Grady has caught the popup.

1898 0723 CHICAGO NL at CLEVELAND NL

Trickery – This play was not trickery but was
c

ontroversial by a series of umpire calls.

Confusion – Not specifically a confusion, but the
runner on third, Chief Zimmer broke for home early when a fly ball off the bat
of Jesse Burkett was caught by Jimmy Ryan, the left fielder. Ryan threw to
Barry McCormick, the third baseman, who touched the bag, and the umpire called
Zimmer out. Later, runner Cy Young was putout at second.

Decision – The triple play occurred after two
controversial calls by the umpire, one allowing batter Chief Zimmer to occupy
base on an “apparent” foul ball and another, allowing the next batter, Cy
Young, to reach first because he thought Frank Isbell, the pitcher, had dropped
Young’s bunt fly. His last decision was to uphold the out on Zimmer for leaving
base early during the triple play. That play today would be called an “appeal”
play.

1901 0714 MILWAUKEE AL at CHICAGO AL

Trickery – This was an

appeal play and was not
trickery.

Confusion – With runners on first, Sam Mertes,
second, Fielder Jones, and third, Dummy Hoy, Jiggs Donahue, Milwaukee first
baseman, caught a line drive off the bat of Frank Isbell. Runners were on the
move. Donahue doubled up Sam Mertes by stepping on first base but was unable to
cut down Fielder Jones at second. Meanwhile, Hoy scored. However, second
baseman Billy Gilbert threw to third baseman, Bill Friel who stepped on third,
believing that Dummy Hoy had left third base early.

Decision – Umpire Cantillon first ruled that Hoy
had scored but, when it was brought to his attention that Hoy has left third
early and Friel had touched third, he declared Hoy out on the appeal.

1905 0415 PITTSBURGH NL at CINCINNATI NL

Trickery – Pop fly appeared to be

trapped
confusing the runners (intentional?).

Confusion – With Cincinnati runners on first, Ed
Phelps, and second, Tommy Corcoran, batter Bob Ewing sent a pop fly toward
first. Bill Clancy, Pittsburgh first baseman, with extraordinary effort got the
ball in his mitt. The runners took off believing Clancy had trapped the ball.
Pittsburgh defenders including Clancy, outfielder Fred Clarke, picking up a
missed catch by second baseman Claude Ritchey, and Ritchey putout both runners.

Decision – Umpire Bill Klem decided that Clancy
had made a legal catch and all hands were out.

1905 0601 ST. LOUIS NL at CINCINNATI NL

Trickery – The controversy involved an

interference call on the offense and did not involve trickery by the defense.

Confusion – With Cincinnati runners on first,
Tommy Corcoran, and second, Miller Huggins, batter Cy Seymour, ordered to bunt,
sent a pop fly in the direction of first. Both runners were certain that the
ball would fall safe, and tore around the bases. However, first baseman Jake
Beckley caught the ball and tossed to second baseman Harry Arndt and, although
he muffed the ball, was able to putout Huggins. Then Arndt threw to pitcher
Jake Thielman, covering first, and he tagged Corcoran, coming back from second.

Decision – Umpire Johnstone declared Corcoran out
for interference with Arndt’s catch on the relay from Beckley, (the reason Arndt
muffed the ball) and the later tag on Corcoran by Thielman was, in reality,
unnecessary.

1911 DETROIT AL vs ST. LOUIS AL

Trickery – George Moriarty, Detroit third
baseman, camped under an infield fly off the bat of Frank LaPorte and even
though Umpire O’Laughlin called “

Confusion – Runners Jim Murray, at first and
Jimmy Austin, at second were also confused by the action of Donie Bush, the
Detroit shortstop, when he called for Moriarty to throw him the ball while he
was near third base. Murray left first, thinking he would be forced out and the
same logic occurred to Jimmy Austin and he started for third. Bush, quickly
running back to second tagged both runners. If the runners would have held their
bases, only batter LaPorte would have been putout.

Decision – Umpire Silk O’Laughlin, having already
ruled on the infield fly, let the play stand.

1922 0903 NEW YORK NL vs PHILADELPHIA NL

Trickery – The trickery here was subtle. After
an

infield fly by Jimmy Smith, Philadelphia batter, dropped untouched, for which
the umpire called him out, the further actions of the runners and the defense
caused the demise of both runners.

Confusion – The first confusion was that of Dave
Bancroft, New York shortstop, who received a throw from Ross Youngs, the right
fielder who was nearest the untouched infield fly. Bancroft then touched second
base thinking he was forcing out the runner on first, Roy Leslie. This action
caused the runner on second, Cliff Lee, to head for third. Bancroft threw the
ball to Heinie Groh, the third baseman, who tagged Lee out. George Kelly, the
first baseman, called for Groh to throw him the ball and he tagged out Leslie
who also had ventured off first and was trying to scramble back.

Decision – The Umpire, after ruling on the
infield fly, let the ensuing action play out.

1929 CHICAGO AL vs CLEVELAND AL

Trickery – The trickery here was that of a

hidden
ball to get the third out.

Confusion – With Cleveland runners on first,
Charlie Jamieson, and second, Johnny Hodapp, the batter, Carl Lind, grounded to
Bill Cissell, the Chicago shortstop, who threw out Lind at first. In the
meantime, Hodapp tried to score from second but got caught in a rundown by Buck
Crouse, the catcher, and Willie Kamm, the third baseman. Jamieson, who had
secured third base during the other maneuvers, felt quite secure at third base
and ventured off. But Kamm, who had hidden the ball in his glove, tagged him
out.

Decision – The Umpire let the play stand.

1931 0906-2 CINCINNATI NL vs ST. LOUIS NL

Trickery – After a double play, the

hidden ball
trick was used to get out three.

Confusion – With St. Louis runners on first, Chick
Hafey, and third, Jim Bottomley, batter Jimmie Wilson flied out to left fielder
Nick Cullop. Cullop threw to catcher Lena Styles nabbing Bottomley at the plate
trying to score after the catch. Styles threw the ball to Leo Durocher, the
shortstop, but not in time to get Hafey who advanced to second. Durocher hid
the ball effectively and when Hafey came off the bag he threw to second baseman
Tony Cuccinello, who tagged Hafey out.

Decision – Umpire let the play stand.

1937 0426 NEW YORK AL vs PHILADELPHIA AL

Trickery – Tony Lazzeri, New York second baseman,
purposely

dropped a line drive off the bat of Chubby Dean.

Confusion – The runner on first, Bob Johnson, and
the runner on second, Wally Moses, were forced to run. Lazzeri tossed to
Frankie Crosetti, the shortstop, to force Johnson, then the relay to Lou Gehrig,
the first baseman, putout batter Dean. Gehrig threw to Red Rolfe, the third
baseman, who tagged Moses sliding into third.

Decision – The umpire let the play stand.

1937 0712 NEW YORK NL at PHILADELPHIA NL

Trickery – Thee was no trickery on the play, but
there was confusion about a “

trapped” ball.

Confusion – With Philadelphia runners on first,
Johnny Moore, second, Hersh Martin, and third, Leo Norris, batter Morrie
Arnovich lofted a fly to right. Mel Ott, New York right fielder, ran in and
made a diving catch near the ground, then threw to Gus Mancuso, the catcher, to
head off Norris who had believed that Ott had trapped the ball. Norris
retreated and Mancuso threw to Dick Bartell, the shortstop, to putout Martin and
he threw to Lou Chiozza, the third baseman, to putout Norris coming back to
third.

Decision – The umpire allowed Ott’s catch and the
later action to stand.

1939 0601 BROOKLYN NL vs CHICAGO NL

Trickery – Cookie Lavagetto, the Brooklyn third
baseman,

trapped a sacrifice bunt popup off the bat of Jimmy Gleeson.

Confusion – Lavagetto, after trapping the bunt
attempt by Gleeson, threw to Johnny Hudson, the second baseman, who was covering
first and he tagged Billy Herman the Chicago runner who did not move off first.
Then Hudson stepped on first putting out batter Gleeson. Hudson fired back to
Lavagetto to get runner Stan Hack, advancing to third from his original position
at second. When Hack retreated back to second, Lavagetto threw to Leo Durocher,
the shortstop, who tagged Hack out.

Decision – The umpire let the play stand.

1956 0925-1 ST. LOUIS NL at CHICAGO NL

Trickery – Trickery was not intended. With the
bases full of Cubs, batter Solly Drake lined to Stan Musial, St. Louis first
baseman, who appeared to

trap the ball.

Confusion – Chicago had a runner on first, Dave
Hillman, on second, Hobie Landrith, and on third, Gene Baker. Musial, acting as
if he had caught the ball off the bat of Drake, threw to Dick Schofield, the
shortstop, doubling Landrith off second. Schofield threw to Don Blasingame, the
second baseman, who was covering first but the throw was too late to catch
Hillman off the bag. Blasingame then threw the ball to the pitcher, Lindy
McDaniel. Manager Fred Hutchinson of the Cardinals shouted instructions to
McDaniel and the pitcher threw to Ken Boyer, the third baseman, to triple up
Baker who had raced home.

Decision – The umpire upheld that Musial had
legally caught the ball.

1980 0622-1 CHICAGO AL vs DETROIT AL

Trickery – Not particularly a trick, but runners
left their bases on an

apparent dropped drive to Chicago right fielder Harold
Baines.

Confusion – With Detroit runners on first, Lou
Whitaker, and third, Jim Lentine, batter Duffy Dyer hit a line drive to right
fielder Harold Baines. The ball fell out of Baines’ glove but was ruled a
catch, and was picked up by Jim Morrison, the second baseman, who threw to Mike
Squires, the first baseman, doubling up Whitaker. Squires threw to Greg Pryor,
the third baseman, who stepped on the bag to putout Lentine.

Decision – Other than ruling that Baines had made
a catch, the umpire let the play stand.

1981 0411 ST. LOUIS NL vs PHILADELPHIA NL

Trickery – There was no trickery, but both the
defense and runners were confused by an

apparent trapped ball.

Confusion – With Philadelphia runners on first,
second and third, Mike Schmidt, Bake McBride and Manny Trillo respectively,
batter Gary Matthews hit a low line drive to shortstop Gary Templeton, who
apparently trapped it, but was ruled a catch. Even Templeton thought he had
trapped the ball and threw home to Darrell Porter, the catcher, who stepped on
the plate trying to force out Trillo. Not getting force out Porter threw to
Keith Hernandez, the first baseman, but Schmidt had already tagged up.
Hernandez threw to Tom Herr, the second baseman, who tagged Schmidt out. Herr
threw to Ken Oberkfell, the third baseman, who tagged out McBride coming in from
second.

Decision – Apparently the umpire’s ruling of a
catch by Templeton was a surprise to both the Cardinals and Phillies.

2006 0611 KANSAS CITY AL vs TAMPA
BAY AL

Trickery – This was not trickery but was an

appeal play by the defense.

Confusion – With Tampa Bay runners on first and third,
Rocco Baldelli and Aubrey Huff, respectively, batter Russell Branyan lofted a
fly to shallow center that was caught by center fielder David DeJesus. DeJesus
threw wildly home trying to nab Huff at the plate. The ball sailed over the
head of Paul Bako, the catcher, but was picked up by pitcher Scott Elarton who
was backing up the play. Elarton threw to Angel Berroa, the shortstop, who
tagged out Baldelli coming from first. Berroa threw to Mark Teahen, the third
baseman, who touched the bag and the Royals appealing to the umpire that Huff
had left third early, completed the triple play.

Decision – Umpire Bob Davidson upheld the appeal
and all hands were out.